Transcript Origins of Cold War

It’s Cold in Here!
The story of what caused the
Cold War
Reluctant Friends
• During WWII the Allies, including the United
States, Great Britain, and France were reluctant
teammates with the Soviet Union.
• They didn’t like Stalin because he was a
Totalitarian jerk, not to mention his country was
communist.
• Communism is the exact opposite of capitalism,
which countries like the U.S., Great Britain, and
France had as their economic system.
East and West Germany
• Remember how Germany was divided into
four parts?
• The parts that were controlled by the U.S.,
Great Britain and France later became West
Germany.
• The part that was controlled by the Soviet
Union became East Germany.
• You did not want to be unlucky enough to be
living in what turned into East Germany!
How did this “war” get its name?
• The Cold War was a competition that developed
between the United States and the Soviet Union
for power and influence in the world.
• The Cold War was characterized by political and
economic conflict and military tensions.
• The rivalry stopped just short of a “hot war” of
direct military fighting between the two.
• The U.S. did however, engage in combat in other
nations in an effort to stop the spread of Soviet
Communism.
Containment
• George Kennan studied the Soviet Union for a
long time and concluded that the Soviet Union
did not plan to try to get along with the
capitalist west.
• He also believed that one or two military
victories by the west (U.S.) would not stop
them from trying to win.
• Finally, he believed the only way to stop them
was to hope to contain them.
What is Containment?
• Containment is what the Cold War became
defined by.
• It meant there would not be an actual war
between the two countries.
• Instead, U.S. policy was that Eastern Europe
was already lost to the Soviets.
• The U.S. would focus on not letting
Communism spread to other parts of the
world.
America…World Police!
• After WWII the Soviet Union had it’s eye on
Turkey because they wanted access to the Black
Sea.
• Greece was in the middle of a civil war,
Communists were trying to overthrow the
government.
• Great Britain was broke after the war and could
not continue to help either country.
• The British suggested the The United States take
over responsibility for defending the region.
The Truman Doctrine
• The British had “handed the job of world
leadership, with all its burdens and all its glory, to
the United States.” –Dean Acheson
• The State Department developed a plan to
protect Turkey and Greece.
• In March 1947 Truman called on the United
States to take a leadership role in the world.
• His statement of principles became known as the
Truman Doctrine and would guide American
actions in the Cold War.
Principles of the Truman Doctrine
• President Harry S. Truman established that the
United States would provide political, military
and economic assistance to all democratic
nations under threat from external or internal
authoritarian forces. (Communists)
• The Truman Doctrine shifted U.S. foreign
policy, away from its usual stance of neutrality,
to one of possible intervention in far away
conflicts.
The Marshall Plan: “You’re welcome
Europe!”
• After World War II:
– 21 million Europeans were homeless.
– 20% of the Polish population had died!
– 20% of homes in France and Belgium had been
destroyed.
– In France alone, damage equaled three times the
nation’s annual income.
• The U.S. did not want a repeat of what happened
after World War I, when the war torn countries
had a hard time getting back on their feet.
Marshall Plan Bails Out Europe
• This time the U.S. looked to restore these
battered countries so they could create stable
democracies and achieve economic recovery.
• Along with the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall
Plan was a complete shift in the way the U.S.
dealt with the rest of the world.
• The Marshall Plan, which called for the nations of
Europe to figure out a program of economic
recovery, would be funded by the U.S.
What does it really mean though?
• The Marshall Plan was a response to American
concerns that Communist parties were growing
stronger in Europe, and the Soviet Union might
want to help and support these communist
movements.
• Over the next four years (1948-1952) the United
States gave out around 13 billion dollars in grants
and loans to 17 Western European nations.
• The region’s economies were quickly restored
and the United States gained strong trade
partners in the region.
East (Totalitarian/Communist) and
West (Democracy/Capitalist) is
formed.
• By 1948, America, Britain, and France realized
that Stalin was not going to allow the
reunification of Germany.
• So, they merged their 3 occupation zones into
the country of West Germany.
• The Soviets responded by making a
communist East Germany out of their zone.
• The city of Berlin was a symbol of this tension
and it was divided into eastern and western
Berlin.
The Berlin Airlift
• The city of West Berlin was actually located
within East Germany.
• Stalin decided to block Allied access to West
Berlin.
• The blockade threatened to create severe
shortages of food and other supplies needed
by the 2.5 million people in West Berlin.
• Truman decided instead of a war, to drop
supplies and food from a plane.
• The Soviets finally gave up the blockade.
Berlin Airlift
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/airlift/
German kids get some grub!
NATO
• The United Nations, which was formed after
WWII, could not help the countries of Western
Europe because the Soviet Union kept using a
veto.
• In an effort to defend Western Europe against
potential Soviet aggression, the U.S., Canada,
and 10 other Western European countries
formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,
or NATO.
The Warsaw Pact
• Using the idea of collective security, each
country in NATO agreed that “an attack
against one or more of them…shall be
considered an attack against them all.”
• The Soviet Union responded by making the
Warsaw Pact, a military alliance with its
satellite nations in Eastern Europe.
Communist Advances
• In 1949, President Truman announced the
terrifying news that the Soviet Union had
successfully tested an atomic bomb.
• This meant New York, Los Angeles and other
American cities were in danger of suffering
the same horrible fate of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.
• Truman’s response was to develop an even
more powerful Hydrogen, or Thermonuclear
bomb that was many times more powerful
than the atomic bomb!
China Falls to the Communists
• During World War II the Chinese Communists
and the Chinese Nationalists had stopped
fighting each other in order to try defeat the
Japanese.
• After the war was over, they began fighting
each other again.
• Unfortunately, for the U.S. and democracies
around the world, the Communists won this
civil war.
• This meant that communism might spread
throughout Asia.
The Cold War at Home
• The Loyalty Program in 1947, was an example
of the fear of communist people within the
United States.
• All new employees hired by the federal
government were to be investigated.
• In addition, the FBI checked its files for
evidence of current government employees
who might be engaged in suspicious activities.
Guilty Until Proven Innocent
• Those accused of disloyalty were brought
before a Loyalty Review Board.
• Those accused of disloyalty to their country
often had little chance to defend themselves.
• Although several million employees were
examined, only a few hundred were actually
removed from their jobs.
• Those accused found it difficult to clear their
names.
HUAC
• Congress created its own loyalty program
called the House Un-American Activities
Committee or HUAC.
• For some reason, they began to focus on the
Hollywood movie industry.
• HUAC claimed that numerous Hollywood
figures had Communist leanings that affected
their filmmaking.
• In fact, some Hollywood personalities were, or
had been members of the Communist Party.
HUAC goes after Hollywood
• In 1947, HUAC called in a number of
Hollywood writers, directors, actors, and
producers to testify.
• Witnesses against them were first called in
and gave testimony based on rumors or flimsy
evidence
• “Are you now or have you every been a
member of the Communist Party?”
• The accused were not allowed to make a
statement to the HUAC.
The Hollywood Ten
• Ten of the Hollywood people brought before
Congress used their 5th amendment right and
refused to answer any questions.
• They were cited for contempt of Congress and
served jail terms ranging from six months to a
year.
• The HUAC had a big impact on the movie
making business, studio executives began
compiling a blacklist of people who would not
be hired.
The McCarthy Era
• Joseph McCarthy, a little known Wisconsin
Senator, needed something to spark interest
in him.
• He decided to focus on the fear of
Communism.
• In 1950, he piled baseless accusations on top
of unprovable charges and took it to the floor
of the Senate.
• His smear campaign became known as
McCarthyism.
Most People Were Afraid of
McCarthy
• Merely being accused by McCarthy caused
people to lose their jobs and their reputation.
• McCarthy even went after former Secretary of
State George Marshall, a national hero!
• Even other Senators were afraid to speak out
against him because they didn’t want to be
called Communist sympathizers.
• In 1950, one Senator named Margaret Chase
Smith did denounce McCarthy’s tactics in her
“Declaration of Conscience.”
Declaration of Conscience
• Link to Declaration of Conscience
McCarthy’s Fall
• In 1954, when one of McCarthy’s aids was drafted,
he accused the Army of being Communist!
• Congress held a hearing called the Army-McCarthy
hearings and broadcast it on TV so the American
public could see McCarthy for what he was.
• Most Americans were horrified by his bullying tactics
and baseless allegations.
• The second “Red Scare”, like the one that followed
WWI subsided, but the country was damaged by the
era’s suppression of free speech and open, honest
debate.
The Arms Race
• During the 1950s, the United States and the Soviet
Union waged an intense struggle for world
leadership.
• This competition reared its ugly head in the form of
an arms race, the struggle to gain weapons
superiority.
• The United States tried to make as many nuclear
weapons as they could.
• Deterrence is the policy of making the military power
of the United States and its allies so strong that no
enemy would dare attack out of fear of retaliation.